New Delhi, June 10 -- Chinese and North Korean state-run media this week devoted thousands of words to Xi Jinping 's summit with Kim Jong Un, but made no mention of a key matter for Washington: the North's steadfast pursuit of nuclear weapons that could threaten the United States and its allies in Asia.

The silence says more than reams of the carefully framed propaganda.

Until disarmament talks finally fell apart in 2019, Washington and Beijing were yearslong partners in diplomacy seeking to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear ambitions in return for much-needed aid and political recognition.

Beijing routinely called for "denuclearization" - a bureaucratic term for nuclear disarmament - and there was hope in Washington, as well...